Howell’s alumna Rachel’s ’10 Things for 10 Years’

When Rachel Walsh was 15 and a student at Howell’s School, Llandaff, she was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma, an extremely rare form of cancer. Treatment started in May 2008, when she was still at school, and she had chemotherapy at the University Hospital Wales for two months.

This summer will mark ten years since Rachel learned she was cancer free. Whilst receiving treatment she witnessed the fantastic work that LATCH, the Welsh Children’s Cancer Charity does to support families during such a difficult time, and she is using this milestone as an opportunity to raise money to help them continue the work they do every day.

Rachel said,

“Whilst having treatment I had thought about one day running a marathon for LATCH when I was fit and well enough, and with my 10 year anniversary approaching I revisited this idea. I have never been a natural runner, or in fact a keen athlete of any sort. In school I would try every trick in the book to get out of P.E lessons, and up until the beginning of last year I had very little interest at all in running.  Nevertheless, I downloaded the Couch to 5K series of podcasts, and ran my first ever Parkrun in October 2017. By that point I had already decided I wanted to do something big to mark being 10 years cancer free. Just running a marathon wasn’t going to be enough. So began my idea for 10 Things for 10 Years.”

Rachel has challenged herself to complete 10 different challenges by August 2nd 2018. She started off with the Saundersfoot New Year’s Day Swim, and will end it by cutting at least 12 inches of her hair off to donate to the Little Princess Trust, to provide wigs for children with cancer.

Rachel’s main hope with her challenges is that she can show children who are currently facing cancer, and their families, that there is light at the end of the tunnel and you can achieve whatever you want to in the future.